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"Challenger", by Melinda Palmer
Copyright © 2000, Age 27
The date was January 28, 1986. It was the day my childhood dreams exploded, leaving me searching for where I belonged and how I was to get there. To some it was an ordinary winter day, but to me it was the day I awoke. I believe that most of our childhood is spent in a state of illusion. A dream-like state swirled with birthday parties, Christmases and summer vacations. As we grow up, our state of consciousness gradually increases. In some cases, we are suddenly jolted from our slumbering into an immediate state of awareness. The latter is what happened to me on that fateful day in late January.
When most of my friends were dreaming of careers in nursing, teaching, or for a husband and several children, I dreamt of being an astronaut. Common lives, to me, were a bore. I wanted to feel the weightlessness of outer space. I wanted to gaze down at our planet – the view of a God. I wanted to walk on the moon and pilot my own shuttle. At least I did until I awoke.
The air around Everitt Junior High School was electrified with an excitement that was felt throughout America. Televisions had been set up in various locations through out the school for the viewing of a proud moment in American history: the lift off of the space shuttle Challenger. The Challenger carried a very special cargo: Christa McAuliffe. A teacher, a non-astronaut, a mother, but most important – an ordinary person.
The entire seventh grade was assembled together in the small school library. A newsman standing in front of the launch pad told us of the importance of this mission. Mrs. McElheney, my homeroom teacher, stood in front of the television set. She was a frail older woman, who would’ve best better served in a rocking chair on her sun porch. Her pale, wrinkled skin looked as though it had never fit her face very well. Her eyes and cheeks were so sunken that her bones seemed to protrude from beneath the ill-fitting skin. Her hands had a slight shake as she began her lecture:
"Today, we will learn that there is nothing that we cannot achieve," She paused to look at the young faces gathered around her. "Together, we will witness history in the making, and as we do, please remember that one day it will be you making the history for tomorrow."
On the television behind her, we saw a large door open to allow the astronauts to take their famous walk to the shuttle. A chill ran up my spine, and I yearned for her to stop ruining this moment for me with her mantra. Mrs. McElheney shifted her weight to her other foot, and I was able to see the first astronaut – the shuttle commander – come through the door.
"You children," She continued, her voice growing even more grating to me with every word. "You children have a responsibility to this country to strive to be the very best. It’s the price that you must pay for the education which you are now receiving."
Mrs. McElheney had finally moved from before the television. The third astronaut walked through the door, it was Christa McAuliffe. Gone was her school teacher wardrobe, and she now proudly wore the pale blue NASA jumpsuit. I always wondered why they had chosen this light shade for the uniform, instead of a flashier color, but today I knew. I stared at the clear blue sky just over the astronauts’ shoulders, and I knew that it was a symbolic color. It held all of the childhood dreams that are found in the blue, clear sky. Christa McAuliffe’s dark haired bounced about her shoulders as she smiled and waved to the cameras.
"This could be any of your," Mrs.McElheney said as tears ran along the crevices on either side of her nose.
Her words rung in my ears, beginning the process of my awakening. Could it be me? I was sure it could be. I had never doubted my date with the stars would come, so why did I now? I would be an astronaut. Yes, that could be me!
My scalp began to tingle, and my body was electrified as the countdown began. A silence fell across the room. The eyes of every student, every teacher, every American watched as the Challenger began to rise, propelled by a fiery force off the launch pad and into the pale sky. My hands began to shake, and I heard the echoing of applause from throughout the library.
Mrs. McElheney walked to the front of the room, her hands clasped demurely against the front of her pleated jeans. "Remember students, this could be you..."
The explosion that ripped through the Challenger brought an eerie silence to the once rowdy room. Tears filled the eyes of even the hardest hearts. Mrs. McElheney’s words echoed through my mind, and I knew that yes, this could definitely be me. It was as if I had been awakened from a deep sleep, to find that I was in a strange room. My world no longer made since, and I found myself thinking that maybe an ordinary life wasn’t so boring after all.
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